The EU will need to invest €500 billion in new generation nuclear power stations, said Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner. To label energy from nuclear power and natural gas as "green" was a vital step towards attracting investors. Currently, the bloc gets 26% of its energy from nuclear power, by 2050, this would be reduced to 15%.

ESMA has published a paper seeking feedback on possible changes to regulatory standards and reporting requirements when deploying distributed ledger technology (DLT) for securities trading and settlement. The consultation comes in the wake of plans for a pilot regime for trading and settling digital securities issued, traded and recorded on DLT.

In 2021 banks pocketed US$3.4 billion from green-labelled debt deals, compared with US$3.3B from their work with oil, gas and coal companies. In 2020, the split was US$1.9B for green and US$3.7B for fossil fuels. Analysts expect that US$2.5 trillion of debt advertised as green or ESG-oriented will be issued this year, up from US$1.5T in 2021.

The European Commission’s latest proposal to label natural gas and nuclear energy as green sources under the so-called EU taxonomy has reopened schisms within the bloc. Natural gas accounted for 22.3% of the EU’s energy mix in 2019, with nuclear power making up 13.1% according to Eurostat, but their use varies in every member state.

The crisis has left the EU at the mercy of the weather and Vladimir Putin’s wiles. Natural gas storage sites are only 56% full, more than 15 percentage points below the 10-year average. Russia is building troops on the border with Ukraine. The energy situation limits the scope of actions Western powers can take to counter Russian aggression.

The crisis has left the EU at the mercy of the weather and Vladimir Putin’s wiles. Natural gas storage sites are only 56% full, more than 15 percentage points below the 10-year average. Russia is building troops on the border with Ukraine. The energy situation limits the scope of actions Western powers can take to counter Russian aggression.

European prompt power prices on Monday notched up sharp gains as German day-ahead wind power supply was seen halving while demand rose due to falling temperatures. German week-ahead baseload jumped 76% to €211.2/MWh. German front-year power and the equivalent French contract were at 111 euros and 124.5 euros on Dec. 31.

The country installed only 1.65 GW. To meet the government's targets, Germany would have to add 9.8 GW of solar and 5.9 GW of onshore wind annually. To secure its supply, Germany could be tempted to build more gas-fired power stations, but this risks reinforcing its dependence on Russia, as illustrated by the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

France risks falling short of electricity in a cold snap and lack of wind next month as an abnormally high number of the country’s nuclear reactors are halted for maintenance, the country’s grid operator said. More than a quarter of the 56 atomic reactors are currently halted because the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the utility’s maintenance program.

In Germany, deposits up to 100,000 euros are secured by law. Higher amounts are secured through the Association of German Banks (BdB). For individuals, the secured amounts will be limited to 5 mln from 1 January 2022 and they will reach 1 mln by 2030. For companies, the amount will be slowly lowered from 50 mln to 10 mln by 2030.

Supply has not been able to keep up due to years of lower investments in fossil fuels. Europe’s renewable energy sources have struggled with low wind speeds. German power for next year reached €192 MWh. As utilities burn more fossil fuels, carbon prices surged to a record €90.75/t, with options traders betting prices will hit €100/t by the end of 2021.

Bond investors are reacting to higher inflation: across 35 economies, 5-year bond yields have risen by an average of 0.65 percentage points in the past 3 months. In OECD countries, inflation rose to an uncomfortable 4.6% year on year in September. Real bond yields, after accounting for inflation, are -1%, within spitting distance of record lows.